Huntress
by KaffeeKup
Summary: After a routine slaying of a annoying giant, Aela and the other companions happen among-est a relatively pretty girl, awkward but full of potential, after a while shes revealed to the be the dragonborn and they meet up again. Aela might not be able to keep her nethers in check. Featuring a very simple fem slash fic with a thirsty Aela/dovahkin pairing. (also swearing)
1. Twist it

Chapter One: Twist It :Redux  
~~~~

The day so far had been uneventful, peaceful. Nothing to do except work on administrative tasks while Farkas and his brother sent the whelps to kill wolves that had somehow snuck into people's homes at distant villages. Until the evening gave out and the night began of course and then she could hunt to her heart's content, a new Silver Hands were ripe for the taking and she had planned to ask Skjor to assist in exterminating those little shits.

And then a fucking giant showed up and launched a new blood into the clouds before ramaging over a fresh potato crop at a farm outside Whiterun. Ria had burst in through the doors to Jorrvaskr screamed a call to action and Aela cursed the screeching halt to her cozy day before stumbling out of the Companions Hall with her trusty bow and arrow while only bothering to slip on her brown leather greaves and shoulder plates over her very basic tunic, the ancient nordic armour could stay in the chest for now and she didn't have time for her blue warpaint either.

It was just a giant, nothing special. Although the loss of a potential companion would be difficult to clear as Farkas had a habit of scaring away or breaking shields of roughly half of the prospective one who wished to join. He had come storming into the building to follow Ria and then equally stormed out with them. His heavy wolf armour and skyforge greatsword clanking louder than his trademark grunts

She joined up with said man and Ria and together the three of them ran out of city in record time ,startling the sleepy guard on gate duty out of his chair and falling over onto the pavement to the amusement of his fellow who then opened the gate for the three impatient companions after guffawing at his colleagues misfortune.

"It's just this way up ahead" Ria said as they cleared the main gate and passed through the drawbridge, the head of the giant slowly coming into view as they went past the lower market vendors next to the stables.

"Ria, how did this fucking thing get so close to Whiterun?" Farkas grunted, slinging his greatsword and himself in that ridiculously heavy armour over a fence, Aela personally managed it a lot easier without such weight.

Ria simply shrugged in her studded armour. "No clue, I was standing on top of the city wall and looked over when I heard screaming and someone being ejected into the clouds".

Fair enough.

The fucking thing moved faster than expected, outpacing the three as it ran over another farms crops, much to displeasure of the nord in charge who had thrown kitchen knives and buckets at it before wisely deciding to retreat. Said giant stopped at the final farm, just before the road to Riverrun when they had finally managed to corner it there. It was pretty normal build for a giant, far bigger than an average person and at least the height of a building with grey skin, a scraggly beard the size of a tall child and covered in a tunic made of furs of large builds with a giant club longer than a carriage easily carried in a single hand.

Farkas with his huge greatsword had taken point, charging in and weaving between the giants heavy and powerful, but slow and predictable strikes to those in the know allowed the companion to start chopping at the giants legs in an attempt to either stagger or knock it down.

Ria followed suit but at a wary distance, landing in blows at the thighs with her mace to cause huge bruises and using her shield to bat away the strikes when they had come too close for comfort, an impressive feat considering her inexperience and that she was the newest companion.

Aela got herself into the best position, her lack of armour preventing her from getting close but she preferred her bow anyway and the giant's thankful inability to throw things meant that she was safe regardless.

The giant however, wasn't safe from her. And it was soon screaming in pain as she nocked and clocked her bow as fast as she could and started losing as many deadly arrows as she could to provide support for her two allies, targeting the weak points such as the neck, joints and the shoulders to stop the damn thing from trying to smash everything next to it to oblivion.

Someone else had started losing arrows at it too, inexperienced ones that occasionally fell short or hit the legs rather than the upper body but a welcome effort.

She bothers looking who they were, probably a guard or an adventure.

"Keep it up Aela, it's getting pissed!" Ria shouted and then whooped as she dodged a heavy swing of its club by stepping easily to the side.

"Don't get cocky whelp" Farkas muttered and Aela grunted in agreement, Ria learning how to dodge good, Ria getting whacked bad. She was kinda cute too.

They had kept it up for at least another minute and it became annoyingly clear that the giant wasn't dying from slashing attacks or arrows embedded into its fat.

So Aela started aiming for the head, taking slower and more precise shots while switching to the "good stuff" her private collection of specially made and reinforced steel arrows that had a ebony tipped arrow point and a pinch of frostbite venom that leaked out after the tip and shaft would break off into the targets body specially made by Eorlund Gray-Mane the legendary and greatest smith in Skyrim. The effect was immediate and the fucking giant finally started to show signs of agony as Farkas logded his sword into its ankle, forcing it to kneel. Ria managed to hold on to its whacking arm and was in the process of smacking the giants soft stomach with her mace.

And the other person was loosing arrows at a ridiculous rate into its spine.

It finally fell at a great cost of sweat and ammunition , face planting into the patch of cabbages with the shockwave of its fall throwing potatoes into the air and smacking an errant passer by in the face by vegetable projectile.

Farkas, Ria and herself met up at the base of its legs, whooping and congratulating each other on a surprise but a successful joint kill that they could dismember and use the giants body parts as ornaments once everything was removed. A skull as a mead mug was always in good fashion with the companions.

"Good job with the swording Farkas, an excellent move to immobilise it" Ria smiled and congratulated her heavier shield sibling to which the older man complemented back with his usual monotone flair.  
"Those dodges were good"

Aela raised an eyebrow and glared at Farkas. "What ice-brain was trying to say is that he appreciated you not getting whacked in Kynareth's domain"

"Yes" Farkas slowly replied.

"Dolt" Aela grinned and slapped him lightly on the shoulder pad.

"Speaking of dolts Aela, not wearing much today hmmm?" The other woman teased and Aela shrugged, knowing that her tunic wasn't exactly nord friendly when it came to the conserative dress code that women normally wore.

"I didn't have time Ria, and besides you know I enjoy putting on a show" Aela stuck her tongue out with a raised eyebrow, making the younger Imperial flush a and fidget a little.

"Huh, she hasn't gone yet". Farkas pondered.  
"Who?" Aela asked, confused and uncertain to who "she was".

"The girl helping us out with the giant, there". Farkas pointed to a figure awkwardly positioned at a stand off distance to them, obviously wanting to talk to them or be noticed. An adventure wanting to join the companions? Certainly would be why they decided to help out.

"Hey!" Aela called out and waved her arm, now free of the bow and arrows that were fastned safely to her back.  
"Come on over, we don't bite!" Ria seconded.  
"What they said," Farkas said.

The figure came over almost immediately, and it was a woman. A pretty girl with fair asymmetrical hair, green eyes and a few freckles dotted around her face, her armour was a mismatch of leather bottoms, the boots of a mage with a hunters combined tunic and breastplate with a set of ancient nordic gauntlets holding an Imperial bow and a fire enchanted steel sword to finish it off.

She was pretty though. A cute button nose and hips that betrayed her otherwise slim figure that Aela wouldn't mind taking to the Bannered Mare and paying ten gold for a private night with.

"You handled yourself well , you could make for a decent shield sister". Farkas approached the girl and handed her a small pouch of coins in compensation for any injuries or likely lost arrows.

"A shield sister?" The girl replied in a foreign sounding, but decent accent.

"You haven't heard of the companions eh? Well we're Skyrim's greatest band of warriors to solve problems the lowliest peasant and the high want dealing with". Ria began, telling a tale of epic proportions and stunning quests as she and Farkas stood in a loose circle with the newcomer.

"If the coin is good enough" Aela jokes, putting her hands on Farkas and deciding to join in on the brewing conversation, and partially to see if she could make the cute girl squirm or blush a little.  
"So you're mercenaries?" The girl asked, slightly confused as she looked at the three companions, glanching between them for any marks or something she could recognise.  
Aela scoffs, did she think they were a low life band of common mercenaries? Was she "that" new to Skyrim? Land of the Nords where Honour meant everything to them.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to insinuate tha-" Nervously stuttering with a light blush, the girl quickly apologized but Aela cut her off.  
"What's your name?".

"My-my name?".  
"Yes". Farkas unhelpfully said.

"It's Seera"  
"You handled yourself well, the giant never saw you coming and by doing so you spared us a few arrows and sweat". Aela compliented, intent on going further as she looked the girls figure up and down, Farkas chuckled knowing where she was going.

"Thank you, I guess I just saw you guys and figured I might as-well". Seera replied, giving the dead giant a nervous look to make sure it was dead.

Cute name for a cute girl.  
"Well, good to meet you Seera, would you be interested in joining the companions?" Ria butted in , interrupting what Aela was going to say next.  
"Um sure, I just need to talk to the Jarl first, do you know where he is?".

"Past the market, through the gates and at the top of the city's hill".  
"Thanks".

Seera quickly ran past them to the amusement of the three involved, her awkward demonar gave the two women a grin and the oblivious Farkas a raised eyebrow.  
"Busy". Ria quipped.  
"Does she know the jarls name?" Farkas said in a monotone voice again, watching the girl run past the stalls and almost running into a carriage.  
"Cute" Aela smirked and Ria gave a knowing look. Aela shot her a "what" glance back and Ria shrugged her shoulders in reply.

"So, how are we gonna get this giant out of here and it's skull back to the drinking table?" Farkas asked, gesturing at the dead enemy that was taking up at least three patches of the farm crop.

~~~~~

The good news was that Jorrvaskr's mead hall now had a fairly large and impressive skull of a giant adorning one of the tables, large enough that it could be used to hold mead and pour it into mugs, and that it carried enough gold for the three to split their earnings equally and still make a tidy profit.

The bad news was that they had to drag the fucking giant out of the crop patch while a large and amused group of passerbys stood and watch, offering no help as they preffered to watch Aela and the companions break thier backs to remove the offending creature. She had gone back to the companions homestead and waited for an hour or two for that Seera to come by so she could talk to her, or chat her up. Unfortunately she didn't appear and word got around that the girl had been sent to a nordic ruin infested with Draugr near Riverrun, a fool's errand that the a lot of brave souls had been sent to their deaths for the Jarls cursed mage and his obsession with letting others do his dirty work. Coward.

At least it bought her a night in one of the Bannered Mares good rooms, and plenty of Black Briar mead which she had drunk at least six in the last hour and now a lot of things were looking woozy. Or attractive. The bright lights made looking upwards or at tall people difficult and she had moved from the main crowded main room to a more secluded spot where she could have a table to herself to put her feet up, she had shedded her armour hours ago and only that short tunic remained. She could people watch now and be on the lookout for Seera if she came or anyone else who caught her eye.

Around thirty minutes later she found someone, a new blond worker who kept giving her those adorable doe eyes every time she ordered a new drink or when the blondie kept making long swerves around the chairs and tables to sneakily brush a finger or more daring! A hand along Aelas shoulder and upper arm when serving other customers.

She eventually got round to asking when the girl would finish her shift, two hours was the answer and so Aela limited her mead intake.

She wanted to be conscious enough to spend the night with this girl, exploring her ample figure with her hands, sliding fingers around those thighs and maybe giving that slender neck and collarbone a bite as well. She wasn't planning to be back in Jorrvaskr any time soon.

She didn't even ask the girl's name when those two hours went by, she had hoisted her by the waist into the room upstairs completely uncaring of anyone watching. Those who were regulars knew by now one of the big reasons she spent a lot of nights at Whiteruns inn was one night stands, some of the more attractive men and women had experience of it, some even multiple times.

With kisses landing on her forehead, she almost threw the attractive blond to the green bed. She smelt utterly divine and Aelas inner wolf was screaming at her to take it further. Since those years ago when she become a companion of the inner circle her sex drive had gone through the roof when she wasnt able to hunt and this, throwing other people on beds and making them hers for a night was letting off steam.

Kisses, lots of kisses. Everywhere on their bodies as they shed clothing, Aela gave bites and silent sniffs to the other girls naked bodies when she had time. Mead and apples, a typical bar girl and quite pleasant

She started mewling when Aela's deft fingers, trained and honed over years for quick stabs with a ebony dagger and fast knocks and loses with a bow found their way between the girls soft legs and caressed their way up those lovely thighs while she laid her head between a pair of small but perky breats, listening to the bar girls heartbeat go crazy when she started rubbing at her exposed genitalia with a pair of fingers, sliding her tips up and down them to tease and make her wriggle and squirm while Aela held her waist with a free arm.

It didnt take to finish blondie off for a first time, she had clenched Aelas fingers so hard getting blood supply to her entire forearm was tricky but she managed it and soon they were fucking like wild animals, loudly and pure on the Banned Mares best bed.

People stopped complaining eventually.

~~~.

Just a brief introduction chapter that I shelled out in three hours, I've always been a fun of Fem Dovah/Aela and binging on those fics on ff and AO3 hasn't helped, looking to be a relatively short fic to write but i've got a few fun ideas up my sleeve and it's a great opportunity to improve my writing and dialogue!.

Reviews are always welcome btw^^


	2. Morning Dwells

Chapter Two: Mornings dwells.

A/N Chapter One has been edited to provide better flow and explain some elements that will be important later one so if you haven't read it since it first came out, please do so again!^^

The first thing she felt when she woke up was a massive headache, caused by the comsumption of the finest mead in Skyrim that had catapulted her sex drive and senses last night into overdrive and made the inn keeper knock on the door to tell them to keep it quiet. The second thing is that she's completely nude and a little cold, a small memory of last night and her throwing the bed sheet away to better perform her carnal acts surfaces and she hatches a pained smile.

The third thing she feels is another person with their back to her, a familiar scent with nordic blood and a settled sleeping heartbeat, sweaty skin but soft and laced with Aelas own scents and body fluids. The bar girl from last night is content enough that she slept in, without opening her ears. The Huntress knows that it's almost midday and that she most definitely wore the pretty blond out from last night. "Well fucked" is the word she'd used. And if the girl's boss decides to complain then Aela will use the last of the giants bounty from yesterday to ease their conscience.

Still not opening her eyes, she nestles her face into bar girls neck, snorting and taking in the relaxing smells of her hair and skin, then moving an arm round to cup round the blondes stomach and up to her abdomen slowly, using her fingers to trace up and down the soft slick skin prompting a slight slight in the girls reaction as she unconsciously rubs her thighs together and lets out a happy groan. Not content with just her upper body getting in on the warm feeling of being connected with a pretty girl, Aela wraps her naked legs around the blond girl's own and tightens. After a few seconds she feels warmed up and no longer cold from the draft that wooden buildings that the Bannered Mare sometimes produces after a long night.

Her wolf is sated for now, she could have gone hunting last night but seeing Seera and the adrenaline rush from fighting and slaying a giant prompted and then forced her emotional and physical needs elsewhere. Her body required the presence of someone else for a night and she had found them, thus needs met.

And after opening her eyes slowly to be greeted by the morning light and the beauty sleeping next to her, her limbs entangled around. Those needs were well met.

Bar girl woke up around thirty minutes later, she had yawned sleepily and stretched out adorably, sending and giving out confused noises why she was nude and on someone else's bed. Her heart rate had increased when she felt Aelas legs and arms around her, Aela felt it. And then she bit the girl in the neck with her canines, creating a pair of red marks and making bar girl squeal loudly in both pain and pleasure as Aela then squeezed her breast before sliding two digits upwards and moving her nearest thigh to slip between the blonds legs, rubbing agaisnt a now slick sex. Fidgeting and squirming Aelas bed fellow relents and turns over with difficulty to meet the redhead smiling face.

Aela kissed her fully on the lips without warning and cupped the back of the blonde's head, deeply engrossed in making out and sliding her tongue in despite feigned protests.

Aela then made her mark.

~~~~~~~~~~~~  
She crawled out of bed eventually, leaving a lover on a one night stand dazed and confused and barely able to stand up, she had managed to partially quench her parched thirst by drinking a third of a full jug of water that had been conveniently set up away from everything else in the room and she was pretty sure it hadn't originally been there. Her body felt limp and a little tired despite the good sleep last night and while it was her fault for likely over exerting herself again, she was in a good mood despite staggering around the Bannered Mare to find the owner and when she did, she tipped him with whatever gold she had left for compensation for the loss of one of their workers for the morning shift.

There had been idle chatter in the inn that was partially about her and the state she was in, evidently her tunic was partially torn up and was quite travelling to the local population as far as the nordic dress standards went. The other part was an excited and growing discussion about the dragon attack that had happened last night at one of the watchtowers on the city's outskirts. Apparently a local hero had slain the dragon with the help or without depending on who was speaking and had absorbed the beast's energy to the astonishment of all present.

Adding to the amazing tale the Greybeards had then called down from the fortress of High Hrothgar, proclaiming the hero to be dragonborn and he or she had received praise from the Jarl himself, given the title of Thane and Lydia as housecarl and then sept promptly off to receive the summons of Skyrim's most sacred group.

Apparently it was true too and when she reached the halls of Jorrvaskr and was greeted by the usual crowd of the twins amused raised eyebrows upon seeing her condition, Skorji lamenting her for missing out on a hunt to instead spend her night with the flesh and Ria's compliment on the improvement for looking "so well fucked". The rest of the companions simply greeted her with a toast for being alive and looking directly away from some of the more open areas of her tunic.

Farkas and Vilkas sat her down at a table away from the rest of the companions, the twins opposite her and Farkas handed her a bear skin cloak, telling her with a slightly red face that she didn't look decent. Rather than make a clever remark she just nodded and thanked him.

She asked for the adventure's name but neither of them knew. She hoped it was Seera who had made it out alive of the zombie infested hellhole and had become a hero because then she could meet her again when the girl came back from the Greybeards and she could convince her to join the companions and hopefully. Just hopefully bed her for a night or two, she found the girl to be attractive and it was a rountine thing at this point for Aela to "get to know" the hot ones better regardless of sex.

She could taste the sweet smell of the girl's body and that strange but extremely attractive blood of her's that was so different to everyone else's. Of course everybody had their own distinct aroma but this one was different, intoxicating despite it being almost a day ago and it wouldn't go away! Her inner wolf was starting to work its way up again as she ate a piece of chicken meat and a few apples that had been left on the table next to her, her thighs rubbing together and her heart started to fire up again in anticipation of meeting Seera again.

Vilkas coughed and Aela dragged herself out of her fantasy. "What?".

"Skorji said Kodlak wanted to meet you". Vilkas said.  
Aela raised her eyebrow and glanced over to Farkas who simply shrugged, evidently he let his brother do the talking, smart. "About what?".

Vilkas shrugged as well, Aela took that as a sign that it wasn't good and Vilkas probably didn't want to rock the boat, he had always taken a step back when it came to inner circle affairs.

"So, where is the old man?"  
"Downstairs, you know where".

A hour later she was fucking furious, good mood gone. Pissed off and wanted to hit someone, well someone other than Skorji. The dick had waited in the Harbingers room with the old man, or Kodlak himself and when she walked in, completely oblivious the two had told her to sit down and gave her the closest thing she had to a disciplinary practice by her father without the physical beating. Skorji berated her for "Being a member of the inner circle and known throughout Skyrim and yet she acted like a common whore" while Kodlak sat back for a while, Skorji rip into her before he chastised Aela for making the companions look like a gang of hormonal teenagers with that straight face of his. She retorted back, fists clenched and tears in her eyes at being talked down to by a father figure and a brief ex. She told Kodlak that she had done nothing and that every partner of hers was consensual and that she was just filling her inner wolfs desires when she was unable to hunt. The harbinger actually tried to apologise after realising what he had just said but she was having none of it as her temper flares

Then she and Skorji argued, he told her that she should watch herself and Aela countered, perhaps a bit too personally that maybe he was jelaous of her having sex with other people, he told her that it was bullshit and that he didnt care anywhere but the look on his face said otherwise and after some provoking despite Kodlaks attempts to quieten the argument down as the hallway started to get filled with nosey onlookers, Skorji finally broke and called Aela a whore.

So she slugged him in the face hard enough that the back of Skorjis head flew into the wall behind him, he swore loudly and groaned while Kodlak stared at her thunderously and after a moment of a tense face off between them he told Aela the Huntress to get out.

She was going to go back to her room, fully suit up in her pristine leather armour, take supplies and her bow and go fucking hunting for however long it took to clear her head. She told everyone that loudly. Falkas tried to stop her, but his brother shook his head and so the twins did nothing.

She had to go, being insulted and punching a fellow companion, even an ex who had started it was pretty terrible. The consequences would be bad and she might get kicked out of the inner circle but she had to do this now.

And then maybe she could get Seera out of her head.

~~~~

The plot thiccens, at the very least it's been a fun distraction for me, so im working on dialogue, at the very least it's been interesting to work on something non serious.


	3. Wild

Chapter Three: Wild

A/N Chapter 2 was rewritten to prove a better explanation of the last part and some additional lewds/dialogue.

Leather armour with a small tunic underneath, another spare one in a backpack. A roll up piece of bedding with some sheet frames for a tent and a small pot that can be used for a campfire. A trusty bow with a full rack of arrows and lastly a dagger for cutting animals or fending off bandits with a small knapsack containing essential supplies.

And herself.

She had moved from her normal hunting grounds from Whiteruns large and familiar plains to the more snowy northern borders in the hopes of bagging a Sabre cat or something likewise as impressive.

The first day her aim had been terrible, the fight with Farka's father figure and her ex weighed terribly on her mind and she wasn't able to achieve any clear hits on deer, so she went for wolves and that didn't go as planned either. One of them had managed to bite her in the thigh hard enough that she went through three makeshift bandages giving her a stumbling bad leg that lasted for the next three days that left Aela hungry and pissed.

And then it fucking rained. So she moved out of Whiterun's eastern sector and border with East March and the Pale when it started getting cold enough to require her to sleep with her armour and fur cloak on and went back to her old hunting grounds that she knew were reliable, the area between the Silent Moons Camp and Fort Greymoor that while hostile, had plenty of nooks and crannies for a single hunter and most importantly, lots and lots of hiding places. A small stone ledge on a hill with a small open cave and an extremely good field of view when creating it was where she made camp, it was perfect for her and seemed almost completely made for one huntress, it was a wonder why she hadn't found it before .

The fourth day she scored her first real kill, a large alpha wolf with a silent arrow that pierced its throat, making it bleed out quickly enough that the attack made the pack run away in terror or simply confusion at Aelas quick and silent kill of their leader.  
She checked the coast was clear, moved out of her hiding spot with a slight limp and dragged the wolf off to camp a few hundred metres away, her hungry body complained and whined but she stated it in a few hours when the good parts of the kill was cleaned and cooked and fed into her belly with some berries picked from bushes and clean water from a nearby river.

The fourth day yielded two wolves, and her hybrid wolf blood and healed her leg enough that she was able to drag both them far enough to a safe spot where she skinned the pelts off to use as cover if the night went cold as such was Skyrim's occasionally weird weather.

Day number five came and went in a giant thunderstorm that threatened to swim her camp if the nearby river burst its banks. Fortunately it didn't and the peaceful time spent listening to the rain as well as the time away from her fellow companions gave Aela the opportunity to curl into her bedroll and reflect.

She had been an asshole, there was no other way to put it when she replayed the events that had led up to her punching Skorji and storming out of Jorrvaskr and while Skorji probably deserved to be socked in the face, she knew deep down that she shouldn't have blown up so quickly in the presence of Kodlak. Even worse was she created a scene that made her look pretty awful in front of everyone else, including the Twins and Ria who she was going to eventually take on as an apprentice. And that was right after she walked into the hall of Skyrim's greatest warriors after a messy one night stand probably looking like a cheap slut.

Thinking that hurt and she clenched the pelt that made her bed in frustration. It was becoming clear to Aela that continuing to bed random people was breaking her once solid relationship with Skorji and Kodlak, and especially Kodlak, if the Harbinger got involved then that person had fucked up. And worse she wasn't sure if the Twins, her other fellow wolfkin would continue to approve of her actions. While Farkas was genuinely a nice guy and a caring friend, someone Aela never wanted to lose, he followed Vilka's lead and that man wouldn't let anyone stain the companions honor. And what would happen to the other girls if Aela The Huntress, the only female of the inner circle was disgraced?

The thought of it made her shudder, imagining the worst if she screwed up that badly.

Thing was, she was caught in a bind. Aela's inner wolf, the hunting spirit that drove her on to continually take down prey in the wild couldn't always be stated that way, she couldn't hunt forever and there would be times (that had already happened!) that she had stayed in Jorrvaskr for weeks or even months at a time, either dealing with situations, representing the companions or training new recruits. What was she supposed to do then? Let herself grow edgy with need? That was precisely the reason why she started picking people up at the Bannered Mare so she wouldn't have to deal with her wolf itching so badly to hunt that she would constantly clash with others.

Maybe she could find someone who could sate her, be a regular fuck buddy, or at the very least help her to take a step back or something because solving this puzzle of need and want, of staying in the companions and being able to function properly with the others was clearly starting to affect her life too negatively.

She should probably sleep.

~~~~~

Sometime the next day she heard something, or well her enhanced hearing that being wolfkin allowed her to pick up a sound that would normally need to be a hell of a lot closer to the average person to hear.

It was loud, unique.

Coming from its direction was a faint but familiar smell that she couldn't quite pinpoint.

It shook the airspace around it and then reverberated in Aelas cave , making her clamp her hands around her ears to stop the noise, whatever it was from killing her hearing.  
It lasted for a few seconds and then stopped.

Aela quickly threw her armour and weapons on, dagger hitled to a thigh and bow with its quiver to her back, she crawled up the shallow slope to the edge of her cave knowing that whatever made that sound wasn't a giant, or a sabre cat and completely unknown.

Flat on her belly, face almost in the dirt and body ready to immediately sleeve off her bow and lose an arrow when she saw it.

It wasn't a giant, in fact it was attacking the giants at their camp situated in a clearing, it was setting them on fire and launching the huge mammoths that accompanied them back several metres by shouting at them?.

It could breathe fire, it could talk and it could fucking fly. Some massive scalcy bird with a long neck and a pair of wings so huge that every time they flapped up and down to keep the gigantic thing stable in the air the trees around would shake a little.

It was a fucking dragon, it had to be. Nothing in those boring Norse Mythology lessons her teacher at the broken down village had taught her even close to its all empowering size and weight. Aela was starting to regret not remembering that just a few days back a dragon had been sighted and killed by the mighty dragonborn and she should have picked an area that wasn't just a few kilometres away from where it was slain.

A actual fucking mother fucking dragon had come back all the way from the dead and it was literally beating the shit out of an entire camp and was going to roast a nearby bandit fortress as the stupid idiots had come running out of thier safe and fortified positions and were trying to attack it.

The dragon was big and brown, leathery and yet scaly with a pair of beady eyes that seemed to bore into the ground huntress, adorned above its head was a horn on one side of its skull and a broken one opposite.

Did it see her already? Even in the approaching dim darkness of the sun she was sure it would have noticed her, her wolf blood and senses saw it coming before even the best guard in the highest watchtower would.

She was scared, she was going to get roasted alive by a giant fucking flying reptile and her arrows wouldnt be able to make a dent in the thing since one of the giants had already tried to whack it into the atmosphere with its giant club and the only thing it succedded in doing was making the reptile mad, and even if it had weakeness it could just fly away.

In the next few minutes she would need to do her best and dammdest to get the fuck away from the thing while it still had victims to munch on as the horrible truth of her current postion began to dawn on her, she was in a shallow cave. A hole basically with one entrance and also the exit, if that dragon decided to even squirt a bit of flame her way she would be cooked alive.

She needs to get out, now.

Aela grabs her weapons, cald in her armour and sprints out of the cave as fast as she can, aiming for a nearby tree line for cover and protection that sits on a parallel line to the currently raging fight where a scorched giant finally toppled over and landed on a bandit, squashing him. The dragons screaming and shouting is hurting her ears enough that they're bleeding but she ignores them as Aela runs down a slightly sunken embankment that gives her cover from the Silent Moons archers and the alarming number of debris that's being chucked out of the giant camp.

The shouting is thankfully deflected away from her current position and the tree line is just ahead, beyond that is a much lower piece of ground that she can follow to Whiterun with so many actual caves and hiding spots that the dragons, giants or bandits will never find her. If they even noticed her at all.

She reaches the trees and immediately hunkers behind one of them and to stop and catch her breath from the mad sprint, Aela looks back at the three way battle unfurling near her evacuated cave and its immediately obvious with a second burnt giant and quite a few bandit corpses and their ineffective arrows that the dragon is winning.

The dragon lands with a loud thump and knocks over whatever's near it, it looks almost smug and for a few seconds reptile turns away from its near victory and its beady little eyes stare at her, chilling her blood and triggering her flight or fight reflex and while she would normally fight a giant on her own if she had enough ammunition, this apocalyptic flying motherfucker was out of the question.

Is it opening its mouth? Surely it can't breathe fire that far.

It says something, something loud and a massive shockwave emanates from its tongue, blowing dirt away as the cone shaped magic wall of death almost lands on top of her in a few seconds, she manages to duck but is knocked down onto the edge of where the drop is. The trees are looking worse for wear with each of them having a lot of suddenly missing branches and the air around is filled as whatever leaves that weren't disintegrated flap around aimlessly.

The dragon knows she's there, trying to get away from it and it wont let her.

Shit.

And her back feels a lot lighter.

The force of the blast knocked her bow and its array of arrows somewhere.

Double shit.

And she doesn't even need to look to know what a thumping pair of footfalls belong to.

Triple shit.

The brown dragon is getting closer, its huge form and massive pushing power is letting it just barrel over or through whatevers getting in its way and what looks like Aela the Huntress three minutes of sprinting is taking the dragon less than one to reach where she is. She has no defense other than her ebony dagger and she's pretty sure she isn't insane enough to try and stab it where hundreds of arrows and giant clubs have failed.

She pulls her dagger and crouches behind a tree, a plan forming in her head. It might be stupid but if that dragon wants her it'll either have to burn down the tree or get around it and she might just have a chance if her assumption about where its fire comes from is correct.

Beads of sweat pool down her face and she clutches her prized dagger like it's a favourite toy her mother bought her , it may have to be sacrificed but it'll save her life if it works.

The footfalls are getting heavier, the scent of the dragon's blood is getting more and more familiar and she'd be able to work out who else it belongs to if she wasn't about to get killed.

Now she can hear it breathing.

A few seconds later and Aela can feel it breathing.

The brief sight of a huge pair of nostrils to her left comes into view, the dragon is scarcely two metres away and she's gotta wait until the perfect time.

It sniffs and growls.

More of its snout.

Teeth.

Eyes.

Two legs.

She's staring into its eyes.

It's staring into hers.

She brings the dagger to her good arm and calculates with a prayer to where that dagger needs to hit.

The dragon opens its mouth.

She summons up every bit of tired energy left in her.

She can see down its throat and there's a small orange dimming before it gets bigger and bigger. The dragon doesn't want to eat it, it wants to roast her alive like a chicken for emergency supper.

For a brief few seconds the dragon's tongue lolls around in its mouth as she throws her favourite dagger down its throat with all her might, hopefully it's sharp enough.

She doesn't hit her mark but something else. The dragon lets out a loud pained squeal. She hit it somewhere in the mouth. The dragon glares at her in disbelief, she does the same.  
Her dagger is lodged in the tongue, her sharp little cutting and sometimes murdering tool is stuck between teeth in something that a day ago she thought was a myth.

A silent moment passes between them, the dragon locked in complete confusion and Aela in shock at the stupid move she just pulled. It flaps its jaw up and down for a few seconds and repeats the same movements it did when it did the shockwave and Aela clings to the closest tree in reflex but nothing happens.  
She stopped it from shouting.

Now it's pissed off.

And the dagger is glowing orange.

Reflexes save her as she falls backwards into the small valley below her, hitting the soft ground below with a pained thud as she quickly rolls away frantically into a nearby cove, the usual mudcrabs having likely scattered as soon as they heard the dragon coming.

Her clothes are scorched and the skin below the scorch marks ticks and itches already, the dragon set her torso and lower body on fire before she got away and while it was lucky that she wasn't outright killed, it still hurts like a bitch. Dragon fire works fast and Aela's thankful that she was only caught in the blast for less than a second otherwise she'd be joining that chicken.

The dragon flies past, obviously thinking that she simply ran for it as it starts scorching a lot of the surrounding landscape in pissed off anger that a mere mortal dares to hurt it. Well everywhere but where she is.

She's safe.

Getting to whiterun with a wolf bitten thigh and dragon burns might be a challenge though and a normal three hour walk is going to take a lot longer.

At least Aela's alive to tell the tale.

Three hours was a fanifical estimation, six would be nice. Aela managed to stagger into Whiterun the next morning having waded through a river, multiple mudbanks and fields of hurtful and stinging flora that itched and scratched at her torn armour and into the wounds that lay open and bare, her legs practically screamed in agony every time she took a step and her torso burned with exhaustive pain.

And that was just on the road to Whiterun, past the crippled guard tower that saw the rise of the dragonborn, getting through the holds stables and the ancient main gate was even worse socially speaking, people who had made friendly conversation with her in the past looked away in either awkward shame or confusion at the companions battered Huntress.

Aela staggered past Warmiadens and the marketplace, ignoring whoever and whatever stopped to gawk and whisper about the mighty wounded Huntress and what laid her low, she'd deal with them later as soon as she got to the healers at the Temple of Kynareth and either dropped dead or bought back from it.

She reached it and pushed through the doors, almost collapsing immediately at the warm and welcoming environment the peaceful place put out that shocked her body hard enough with its soothing air and healing properties. It was a place of worship and healing, oddly isolated from the war and involved in it as the numerous empty slabs and medicinal tables were usually stocked and stacked with soldiers and civilians from both sides.

Danica Pure-Spring, the priestess noticed her immediately and rushed to stabilise Aela's weakening gait with an arm while applying a bright spark of healing to a puncture wound next to a cracked rib that she didn't know about.

"By the goddess herself Aela, what happened to you!" Danica soothed in Aelas ear, making the huntress grunt as she lay the redhead on a nearby empty slab.

"A dragon paid a visit Dancia"  
"You're an idiot Aela" The priestess scoffs as she straightens the huntress up on the slab, applying her healing hands to the lighter and more easily attainable parts of the woman's body, she "ahhs" and "hmms" while Aela moans and twitches.

"Aela"  
"What?".  
"You're pretty badly injured, I'm seeing burn marks and some deep wounds that I can't get to unless I strip you, are you comfortable with that?" Dancia speaks motherly as she lightly traces her hands along Aelas body, they were close enough that the huntress let the priest mother her.

Being stipped in a public place though? Awkward and embarrassing if anyone she knew came in, then again it was Danica asking so.  
"Is it going to be public?" Aela asks.

"To be honest? Not really, we haven't had many people in since the dragon was killed a week ago so likely just myself and the new apprentice".  
"Alright".

Danica reaches over and curls a lock in Aelas hair before looking over to a distant corner of the temple.  
"Hey Seera , come over here. I'm going to need your help with this one?".

A familiar scent begins to assault Aelas nose, for a brief panicky second she's transported back to the terrifying dragon trying to burn her alive before realising who that scent belongs to. It's that cute girl with the stammery voice who helped with the giant , and looking over. Well. Said girl is different, what was a pretty asymmetrical style of blond was replaced with a lovely brunette restyle that hid a good portion of her face. She was dressed in a newer priestess robe than Dancia was but still held that adorable moving style that made Aela's memories come flooding back.

She stared at Seera.

Seera stared back.

Aela raised an eyebrow and was given a shy one in return.

"Do you two know each other?". Dancia asked, looking at the exchange between them and then glanced at Aela with a bemused expression as she knew the huntress history all too well, having patched her up on numerous occasions.

"Sort of, briefly" Seera replied as she moved forwards Aela, eyeing her up and down as she winced at noticing the damage, evidently more interested in the healing than the body part and while Aela would love to have that girls hands on her, she felt a little self confident about being basically stark naked in front of a potential crush that didn't seem to have the crush part back.

Still maybe she could chat Seera up during the healing process, get to know her for the one or two days it would take and then drag the cutie to the Bannered Mare for a night of romping.

Danica caught her staring and shook a finger.

"Nope, you're going to sleep for this one".

Shit.

Yay chapter three! And start of the whole slash process, roughly half way through and it looks like my writing is getting better. Still ill likely redo this chapter in a week so stay tuned for the redux and the next one where Aela tries to get into Seera pants! Will she succeed or will she fall flat on her ass? I haven't decided yet :D.

A/N

AO3

Aricchi : MORE HAS BEEN GIVEN

FF

Kayda-Starr Thanks! Little dialogue this chapter but only one real social scene, dialogue has always been a problem for me so i'm going to do my best to work out the kinks for chap4^^


	4. Square One Confusion

Chapter Four: Square One

Dancia told her what happened with a grim face after two days of a potion induced blackout that had seen Aela become something of a tourist attraction to the citizens of Whiterun and to the horror of some of the companions when they came in almost hourly to check up on the painful looking healing process after the priestess had covered Aela of course.

Dancia explained that after stripping Aela, she and Seera had found more than just signs and some burns on her thighs and lower body with a wolf bite that healed on the left. Apparently dragon burns were much much more serious than just regular fire from a torch or a mages fingers.  
The two healers had used every single spell in the arsenal that was restoration magic to close the wolf bite that had been infected and spread to her hips, they had exhausted their magicka multiple times to bring red and sometimes blackened flesh to the attractive tone they were but a scant few days before. Apparently Seera took over once Dancia had finally collapsed and the girl had worked for hours on end to seal up a large gash from hitting a sharp rock edge that Aela didn't know about.

Eventually Aela did wake up and Dancia slapped her for being stupid enough to fight a dragon.  
And then promptly wrapped her arms around the redheads waist and simply sighed, telling her with a whimper that she was thankful that Aela was alive.

Aela had hugged her back , slightly disoriented after being knocked out for so long and after some minutes of the embrace had made her move to jump off the bed to search for Seera, her joints aching and what felt her like her entire lower half was tight and sticky from the healing.  
Dancia held a palm to Aela's chest and sat her down comfortably. She explained calmly that Seera was "socially out" after having to work between healing Aela and dealing with spectators and when she made sure Aela was fine, had gone back to her house.

Dancia didn't say where and when Aela asked , the priestess simply replied that Aela should focus on other things for now.

Fair enough.

Dancia knew enough about her life to make better judgement than she could do at a time like this.

Then the bad news came.

The priestess, old and wise in her years and a parental guidance figure that Aela looked to sighed and grimly but honestly told Aela the results of her being burned by dragonfire and given an emergency healing treatment by two trained mages.

Aelas heart sank when she listened.

She wouldn't be able to do any physically straining activity for at least a week, even with her accelerated healing and tougher constitution, she wouldn't be able to hunt nor find temporary bed buddies, for all intents and purposes she would likely be doing- no she knew exactly what Kodlak and the other inner circle would force her to do once they knew if Dancia didn't tell them already.

For her own good she'd be doing paperwork and handling job assignments again, just like she did before Seera came into her life for a few brief moments and the giant that threw a new companion into the atmosphere.

Boring fucking desk work.

~~~~~  
The candles and the outside daylight made the companions building heavy on the eyes forcing her to blink in confusement until she got used to it. Danica had given her a spare belted tunic to use after it was clear that Aela's armour and underclothes were completely wrecked.

Farkas had been the first to see and react, and he actually hugged her when she made it past the heavy twin doors of Jorrvaskr under her own power after managing to convince Danica she could do it.

"Aela!" He had shouted and quickly walked across the hall in record time, his heavy armour and speed knocking over a few chairs to the alarm of some companions sitting in them and the amusement of others.

Aela barely got any words out before her insides were practically squeezed together by the man's ridiculous bear like strength. "Hey Farkas I-oof"  
Strange though, Farkas isn't usually this friendly or….touchy.  
"Farkas?" Aela croaked as she felt a little bit taller than normal 

"I'm glad your back, I was worried that you wouldn't make it" He grunted as per his usual self before letting out a soft smile and then letting go, gesturing to the empty table where the inner circle sat, it had a single space that had a chair out with a plate of food in front and a cup of water. Her space that she made her way to..Jorrvaskr was surprisingly empty except for a few of the regular newbies who would wait to be given assignments and such.

"Anyway I came and saw you a few times and Danica told me that you were recovering today so I made your spot for you Aela". 

"Thanks Farkas..it's appreciated"

"No problem, and before I go. Skorji said he wanted to talk to you in your own time". Farkas helped her into her seat and waved off the other companions to leave Aela on her own while she ate before he headed out the building.

What did Skorji want? To have another public fight? Apologise? Or just gruff around in a perfect Farkas impression while trying to actually explain himself.

She could guess that he was going to apologise for a fight or something of that nature but seeing food made her hungry, and with food right next to her and somewhere to rest for some time, she had bigger priorities.

Like grabbing a knife and fork and digging into an actual meal for the first time in a week, her stomach would definitely stop growling.

Ria had chuckled at Aela's mortified face when she prodded the sleeping redhead in the stomach while she sat at the end of the bed, apparently it took four tries and some choice words before Aela woke up , to which she immediately attempted to go back to sleep with Ria somehow managing to rouse the sleepy huntress.

Ria then struggled to contain her laughter when she witnessed Aela's reactions first hand of what she had missed the previous day. Apparently Aela The Huntress, a night owl most of the time and always active and doing something had slept through a visit by the entire grey mane family in a stormcloak family while drool ran off her face and onto the floor as Kodlak negotiated a no in the most politically neutral term. Then she had continued to doze off and snore loudly through the lunch and dinner with the entire companions shield sibling family present.

Ria did laugh, a lot when Aela went bright red. She teased about the huntress having cute little ears that practically set fire to either side of the already hot redheads face.

She wanted to kill Ria.

But getting out of bed was difficult and being sore was worse.

So Aela resorted to the tried and tested nord tactic of hurling abuse at the problem until it went away which in this case laughing.

Five hundred gold for a kidnapping which had taken place on top of a windmill in Eastmarch which she sent Vilkas and his brother, along with another five hundred for clearing out a nearby bandit cave.

A thousand coins for a kid named Tim who fell down and the family dog had failed to get him out, out of spite she asked Ria to cover it after being teased about her heat sensitive ears. And when Ria came back with a smug expression, Aela had grinned back and simply told her that a giant had been spotted flinging cattle into Kynareth's domain and that since Ria was so eager about her previous job she would be perfect for the assignment.

That made Aela feel better for a little while.

Watching the companions train out in the yard while she was forced to sit on the benches overlooking and unable to join due to a lack of weapons since Eorlund unfortunately was unable to craft any more due to a lack of leather strips Aela was stuck watching.

And even if she had a bow with a fully stocked quiver and a dagger as a secondary, she was still banned from training until her wounds fully healed up and she stopped aching and grunting anytime she performed an action beyond throwing letters written by the population of Skyrim at the nearest available companion.

At least her arms worked properly and didn't hurt, everything below the midsection? Painful, sore and unworkable if she wanted to do anything that involved walking or going to the Bannered Mare, she wasn't a cripple by any means but going from being "the Huntress" to this was just embarrassing. And to make things worse Aela had been told by Farkas that Seera had left Whiterun after the girl had healed Aela up , blowing a hole in the plan of going to Breezehome to give her thanks...and possibly more.

~~~~~~  
Some days after and Aela was slowly progressing from a sitting companion to a walking companion, the time she had been forced to spend had yielded a neutral relationship with Skorji, the two of them manage to speak in public without an argument and they had sat together once during the nightly feast with a discussion about the merits of heavy armour. Aside from that, Farkas, the usually quiet one, had opened up and Aela enjoyed watching him spar with his brother in the yard. Ria too was becoming a fast friend with the two of them spending time together as Aela sat and delivered messages and orders to the companions while chatting to Ria, they had shared interests and both enjoyed poking fun at the others lightheartedly.

Overall, it was getting better and she looked forward to the day when her body had healed up from being attacked by a dragon and sedated by two mages who had then proceeded to dump forty eight hours (and a bit) of magicka induced healing spells. She had felt groggy, moody and in pain most of the time and now? Now it was slowly beginning to heal up as she moved herself closer to bask in the glorious morning sun after being cooped up inside.

And then Seera arrived in the training yard, clad in some kind of mage ebony hybrid armour that hued with blue and white energy and was covered with all kinds of different sized pockets, various pieces of jewelry including a particularly attractive ruby circlet and a blue hood that was down around her shoulders with a nice bit of flesh showing, she didn't carry any weapons either. It looked weird and piqued Aelas interest to say the least but what really got her was that Seera had changed her face again.

Well not just the face, while they hadn't talked as much as Aela wanted to, she had still managed to slot Seeras appearance into the memory bank and she was...different.

The shoulders were a little narrower than before, definitely leaning into the attractive range for a little nibble. And that collarbone? Nice and pointed with a long slender neck that roused that more primal side of Aela that was kept caged in the Bannered Mare and for a week or more had been kept away from awakening.

And now she wanted to jump Seera, badly. Was it the scent of the girls blood or that amber eyes and dark brown hair was most definitely her favourite combination now. Either way, whatever she was fucking gorgeous.

And then she spoke to Vilkas. Who had been busily practicing with his sword and board technique.

"Um hi"  
"Hi to you Dragonborn"

Dragonborn? No wonder she had such a familiar scent but shit that made things a lot more complicated! This cutie pie was supposed to be Skyrims mightiest warrior.

"I um talked to Kodlak and he told me to come see you to "take a look at me", I think".

Didnt help that she was fucking adorable.

"Ah, well let's take a look at you then don't worry I'll go easy on you" Vilkas gestured to the space in front of him as he backstepped to give some room between the two as Seera walked up to him.

"Draw your weapon and take a few swings so I can see your form" He drew out his skyforge shortsword and shield before gesturing for Seera to draw hers.

"Uh, I don't have weapons like that" The dragonborn twiddled her thumbs together and looked around awkwardly at the growing number of companions who stopped their exercises at the training yard to gawp at the strange newcomer

"It doesn't matter, any weapon will do" Vilkas scoffed.

Seera simply spanned her fingers and drew a long shimmering blade with a serrated tip from her right hand, a magical blade from the looks of it and pointed it nervously at the awaiting weapons master.  
"Huh, a mage eh?" Vilkas blinked and touched the tip of Seeras blade with his own cautiously, despite the blue and weightless nature of it by the way the dragonborn wield it, it did seem to have physical properties.

"I guess so, I've never really used this" Seera admitted and gulped nervously , aware of her audience.

"She really doesn't like people watching does she?" Ria muttered behind Aela.

"Is that really the dragonborn?" Another companion said.

"So why come to the companions if you can't wield a blade?" Vilkas huffed and questioned.

"I want to be able to"

"Huh"  
"Is that okay? I- I can leave if you want me to". Seera shuffled side to side while sneaking a glance at Aela.

"Stay, but the rest of you can go, you're stinking up the yard" Aela stared at the other companions until they either went into Jorrvaskr or Whiterun with a few protests.

"Aela is it?" Aela turned her around to find Seera staring directly at her, she nodded and the dragonborn mouthed a "thank you".

Aela gave a thumbs up in return with a loose smile.  
She was going to enjoy this.

She wasn't wrong.

Seera clearly didn't have much of a clue on the sword fighting business when Vilkas lunged at her, she squeaked loudly and then proceeded to shout at him in the ancient nord tongue which blasted the weapons master into a nearby wall.

Vilkas shrugged it off and tried again as fast as he could, prompting a reaction via fireballs and lightning which he barely blocked with his shield. 

After an hour? Of talking and debate Vilkas had managed to get Seera to not react so strongly to being rushed, she flushed and nodded and the two of them eventually managed to get to work on her sword arm with the pleasant discovery that she was ambidextrous.

True to his word of being the weapons master and the prime teacher of new companions Vilkas within the day had taught the dragonborn to swing an actual sword with actual weight and non oblivion materials properly and encouraged (along with Aela) Seera to take down a fully armed and armoured shield warrior. Seera had gone from being barely able to swing a sword with confidence to making Vilkas proud every time she slapped him in the breast plate with it. He was a werewolf after all and that kind of impact didn't bother one in heavy armour.

Aela had ogled with some interest at the ridiculous amount of jewelry Seera had taken off when she sat down in the hall, so many circlets and earrings, left handed and right handed garnets and even a ruby necklace. All enchanted too and professionally done if Vilkas words were anything to hear by.

She didn't want to talk to Seera, badly. But Aela thought that it was best to wait for later when Vilkas was done with her, it was his job to scruniticse new recruits and to see if they were worthy. Even if they were the dragonborn.

~~~~~  
"Aela". Someone spoke her name with a knock on the door.

She opened her eyes and looked up from her chair in her room.

"Aela". A familiar voice softly rang round the room and Aela automatically stiffened when she turned round and saw who it belonged to. A man clad in his signature wolf armour with grey hair and a stern resting expression stood at the chair where Vilkas normally sat, he didn't look happy to see her at all and he was still armed.

Skorji.

She really didn't want to talk to him even though she reconcoiled everything in her head before she met the dragon, it still felt a lot different meeting her ex who she had a public fight with just days prior. Like her heart and soul wanted to be anywhere but here, that she'd rather be clutched in her rug or on her bed asleep. Or just hunting something.

Or in bed with someone.

"Skorji?" She answered back, letting the silence hang between them for a few moments, Skorji didn't say or betray anything and neither did she, they had too much history together to unpack and to her at least it felt that neither party was willing to try.

Skorji quietly sat down with a tightened fist, looking away from her as he opened his mouth and closed it a few times like he was trying to make a sentence but failing, normally he would just spit out his opinion and be done with it.

"I…..I'm pleased to see that you recovered well Aela" Skorji finally spoke and briefly glanced over.  
She glanced back.  
"Thank you" Aela replied, sinking back into her seat a little.  
"Aela I"  
"Yes?"

Skorji breathed in deeply before exhaling, turning round in his chair to face her fully. His expression changed to something more ...somebere. "I'm sorry"

Did he feel that bad about their fight?

To be honest, she felt the same.  
"I'm sorry too".

"I shouldn't have called you a whore and gotten Kodlak involved, it was. It was poor of me to do so". Skorji confessed as he sat, the two companions separated by just a metre in the tight space of the females room.

Nodding slowly and sitting a little upright, Aela sat motionless for a few seconds. "Skorji, I'm sorry for reacting so badly and punching you, it was wrong of me".

"It's more than that, I was jealous of the attention you were giving to others and made it my business when it wasn't, for that Aela. I'm truly sorry for almost getting you killed". Skorji confessed , letting his feelings out in a single uncontrolled moment.

Aela honestly didn't know how to react to that, Skorji felt that strongly about what happened a year and some months ago that he had let it grow until he exploded at her?

She had mixed feelings towards that. Exes always had trouble after a breakup (which she has been through a lot) and Skorji doubtlessly and blamelessly still had feelings for her, but it was her life that she led and not his.

Still, that revelation she had earlier about her actions and attitudes she bought still rang in her head like fresh memories.  
"Skorji, I" She began but found the words she wanted to say weren't there, that she had to find them again.  
"Aela?"

"I forgive you and I'm to blame too, but we can't go back to being what you wanted us to. I have my life and you have yours, we are shield siblings and that will never change but there's nothing beyond that for me Skorji".

Skorji nodded silently and stood up, giving a wordless "okay" and headed off outside to Whiterun.

Aela slumped back in her chair and swore, hoping that Skorji had taken it well or worse case was neutral minded and simply accepted it.

"Hey, uh can I come in?" Another knock interrupted Aela's eyes from closing and she snapped back in her chair expecting to see Skorji come in with that scowl on his face and wolf armour blocking the door frame.

But it wasn't.

"Hey….Seera?" Aela blinked a few times and groaned sleepily, was she about to doze off?

"Can I come in?" The dragonborn repeated with a muffled voice behind the closed door and Aela replied with a yes.

Seera opened the door quietly and stepped in just as much, clad in her usual arriete of a foreign mage hybrid armour but nothing else, evidently she had probably been given a bed to sleep and had simply deposited her stuff. 

Aela looked her up and down, to be fair she was happy to see the girl she had a growing crush on but this time of the night? She was about to sleep and well, that wouldn't be happening.

Sex.

She mentally slapped herself for immediately coming to that conclusion, Seera didn't seem that type and probably had a different reason.

"You okay Aela?"

"Yeah I'm fine, just tired"  
"Okay-can I sit down somewhere?"

"Sure" Aela pointed to the seat that Skorji didn't sit down and watched with a yawn as the dragonborn silently sat herself down, placing a handled pouch on a nearby table.

She thought about it, asking that is.

"So why come over? I doubt it's for a social visit" Aela said bluntly.

"I guess. I guess I wanted to check up on you, see how your dying since you got torched by that dragon"  
"Oh, well Im fine"

"Okay, that's good"

"Yeah I guess so"

Awkward. Aela had imagined their first real contact would have gone a much easier and physical route, there wasn't anything to talk about and her mind had annoyingly gone blank. Less than a day ago she could have come up with at least ten different topics but when actually wanting to do so there was nothing.

Seera shifted and to Aelas surprise, pulled an entire goddamn shield out of that little pocket on the table , inspecting and tracing her long forefinger down the rim with Aela watching with some focus. She then turned it over and tapped a purple object against it, producing a series of blue and red colours to slowly morph into the beautiful framework.

Seera turned to look at Aela with a soft expression and handed the shield over, it was surprisingly light even with Aelas damaged touch and looked...actually quite pretty for a shield.

"I-thank you?" Aela asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It's got ebony and glass reinforced skyforge framework , I asked Eurlond for help and he allowed me to temper the outside so its fire resistant and its super light so you can carry it on your back or wherever"

"Um, thank you I" She was speechless, Seera made that for her? Was that her way of flirting or something or was she that concerned about Aela that the Dragonborn constructed an entire shield for one lowely companion.

When she turned around to face Seera and properly thank her, she was gone.

Whatever it was, gift or else. Aela appreciated it.

A/N.

Dragonborn is now dohav-fironet, change my mind.

Keera Star: Yes Keera dialogue! I think it's getting better but i'll be making more next chapter. Fics almost done and there hasn't been much smut, but it's all going to change soon!


	5. The Little Things

Chapter Five: The little things.

The situation became far more bearable when she was managing to move through the companions hall and training ground without pain or being forced to embarrassingly rely on help to get from A to B even if it was conducted by the increasingly friendly Farkas or the confident that was Ria. Even Skorji had offered and Aela turned him down quickly, even with their hushed and slightly awkward talk, getting back with an ex was never in Aelas favour or idea and she managed to diplomatically solve the little crisis and the extinct feelings between them.

Giving out job orders is much easier when you don't have to be carried away by Skyrims warrior build due to dragon burns and general misuse with several broken bones and enough damage to require a trained healer and the bloody dragonborn to work bone dry for days.

The bloody dragonborn.

Seera.

Sometimes they talked, little words and small glances that were taken at every opportunity. The jobs Aela would hand out to the famed dragonborn were always close to Whiterun hold or in the neighbouring holds and always with a shield companion that Aela trusted to bring her home. While others would scoff at having to protect the warrior of legend there was something in Seeras manner and her behaviour that caused Aela to feel paranoid.

The girl had remade her face at least three times, Aela hadn't asked why but upon encountering Seera and the attention she received daily from the nobles and common folk of Skyrim, combined with her awkward mannerisms and introverted nature that led her to a nearby forge when she wasn't with the companions and away from talking and to her smithing...it was kinda obvious why she preferred inanimate objects over people. They had found that out during the second night as the younger, unfamiliar members of the companions swarmed Seera's chair with questions about her life as the dragon. Seera promptly popped a spell before turning invisible and ran to Breezehome. Evidently she wasnt a fan of crowds.

She doubted herself too, poor girl. Even when she presented a new dagger and bow for Aela that she had spent half a day constructing at the Skyforge, Seera just couldn't take a compliment properly.

"It's beautiful, Eurlond must love your work" Aela smiled when she received them and Seera's reaction was always the same, a confused expression that frustrated Aela's attempts to turn the precious little time they had together into something bigger.

And that was with Aela whom the dragonborn actually talked to or approached willingly. The other companions were a mixed bag with the friendlier Farkas and Vilkas being able to get enough conversation out of Seera to be friends and Aela eventually managed to convince her to be on speaking terms with Ria when she sent the pair of them out on a hunt together.

Aela had a plan though for when she was capable of physically demanding activity , she'd start taking Seera out for hunts, she'd train her with a bow because while Farkas and Vilkas were great teachers in arms and armoury, none of them would compare to the Huntress. Divines know it could be considered a date.

She'd start with the things that mattered first.

The little things.

Just easy things, little words of support and not referring to the girl as the dragonborn but a completely independent person, she had her own life before the gigantic responsibility was dumped on her and Aela did her best to recognise and tread a path around that.

Getting Seera to open up about her favourite subjects without stopping herself halfway through because she thought Aela or the people she talked to were not interested , she'd suddenly start rambling on in excited sentences about a new type of forging or a potion and just as quickly that spark would die out as she'd catch herself and promptly shut up. Even if Aela or the others would protest she'd still refuse. Gods it was hurtful to watch.

~~~~~  
Being a Werewolf gave certain perks that enhanced sight at night, perception and smell. Everyone had their own unique scent to them that followed the person around like an aroma and could be addicting if it was particularly attractive.

"That's a pretty good shot but you can do better,make sure your fingers are properly secured or loosing will take a tip off"  
"I'll try to do better next time Aela"  
"You will Seera, it's just practice and that takes time" Aela , with some convincing, had managed to take Seera out in the training yard with a standard bow from the armoury for practice. Partly because of her suspicions (which were proven right after a few botched attempts) that Seera hadn't had much practice with archery and partly that this was an area that she could take complete control over with just the two of them, perfect for getting to know someone.

"Shit, I mean-sorry" Seera swore before apologising with a blush as she missed the target that Aela had set up on the other end of the ground, about twenty five metres away or a good killzone for a deer.

"It's fine, it's called practice for a reason. Everyone does it" Aela hid a smile as she got closer to her crush , adjusting Seera's arms with her fingers and positioning the girl's posture with a few quick touches. At first Seera had resisted Aela being within touching distance at first but eventually grew comfortable enough to let Aela put her hands on her body.  
"Try again"

The arrow thudded slightly higher than dead centre, but otherwise okay.

"I missed" Seera sighed and her shoulders dropped, she glanced off to Aela who raised an eyebrow in return.

"Doubt it, that's a kill shot for a person"  
"But-but it didn't hit" 

Rolling her eyes and barely suppressing a smark, Aela lightly slapped Seera's shoulder blade, as intelligent as the girl was she could be adorably silly.  
"Like I said, doesn't matter. If you hit it, you hit"  
"I guess" That voice was too cute to exist. The tone and pitch reminded Aela of a girl from the bards college whom after a brief conversation Aela had immediately decided to walk away or suffer a nosebleed, name was Net something?.

"Aela?"  
"Hmmm?"

Seera gestured with her head to a few companions and citizens standing behind them, Aelas better hearing had of course picked them up but she decided to ignore the crowd and concentrate on Seera instead.  
"Eh? Just some gawkers. Ignore them" Aela shrugged.

"I don't like being watched" Seera stepped back bumping into Aela with a loud squeak before immediately jumping forwards to Aelas displeasure, of course she wouldn't mind if Seera stayed there in her arms , the back of the dragonborns head brushing against her lips so she could- 

Aela mentally slapped herself, those kinds of thoughts could come later. Now was archery time. Even if the briefest of that intoxicating scent was currently making coherent thought difficult.

"Aela, are you okay? You spaced out"  
"I'm good, yeah really good"

She mentally slapped herself again.

Seera looked back and raised an eyebrow with Aela shrugging in return, thinking of..what could be was distracting enough. Her ears were picking up more people that were watching for whatever reason and while Aela didnt give much of a fuck about them ,Seera was begining to get fidgety and every time she pulled the bow she would hestiate second guessing herself.

Not acceptable for a trainer like Aela.

She kept trying, harder and harder. Too hard and Seera started missing the mark, her scent and body language got frustrated with a quiet and colourful swear word every time. Was she afraid of failing in front of people?.

"Seera?" Aela murmured sympathetically as she lowered the girls bow, tracing fingers up the dragonborns shoulders and loosening those knots that often appeared when pulling back on a bow too much ,producing a contented breath with a relaxed shiver that gave Aela those dirty thoughts again.

"I'm sorry about this Aela, could we try again at some other po-" Seera started stuttering again, looking at any direction other than a person. Aela had gotten to know Seera enough that this was the nervous and awkward side talking and she wasn't going to lose this fight. 

Aela got close, real close and leant into the dragonborns ear while pressing hard on her shoulders.

"Tell me about that bow you made for me"

"It's, uh are you sure? Its nothing great I j-just"  
"No really, I wanna know" Aela grinned and leaned in , putting some body weight on Seeras back with a slight sway as an even bigger distraction from the unimportant crowd at their rear. The adorable little squeak that came out told her she was going in the right direction.

"It's nordic, like the one you had before. I uh, made sure to keep it light with glass materials and used the best string Belethor had to keep its strength up?"  
"Keep going, how did you make it?"  
"Are you interested in Aela?"  
"Mhmm that I am" 

~~~~~~

"So Kodlak approved?" Ria asked ,absently stabbing a potato as she leaned on the table opposite Aela as they sat outside during night.  
"Well he ahhh'd and mmm'd but basically yes"

Ria nodded in approval.  
"How's it going with dragon girl? You two got pretty close during that little practice session earlier" The Imperial smirked teasingly,of course she knew that Aela liked Seera having figured it out within a few hours of observation and confirming by confronting a blushing and stubborn Aela in denial in front of Farkas which she still wasn't forgiven for. 

"Could be better I guess, I still don't actually know if she really likes me or not" Aela admitted. There was some truth to it though, Seera certainly had a rather odd way of showing affection that Aela wasn't used to, she preferred far more physical encounters rather than a long drawn out courtship in which she didn't know the foggiest of the intendeds intentions.

"Eh? I'm pretty sure that our little dragonborn does, hell she brings you stuff and lets you touch her. If that ain't being comfortable with someone I don't know what is" Ria shrugged.

Slumping her chin on her hand and protesting, Aela sighed."But there's nothing romantic about that, close friends can do that and I've never seen or heard anything from Seera that gives me a definite like"

Ria paused for a few seconds and lay her head back, seemingly calculating something before coming back to life.

"Aela, you're an idiot" The imperial chuckled with an eye roll.

"Fuck you Ria"  
"No seriously, you. Aela the Huntress are an idiot"  
"Fuck you again Ria"

"Alright" Ria breathed and let out a deep sigh, discarding her fork and looking Aela dead in the eyes.  
"I honestly can't believe that I came to Skyrim to be a part of its warrior guild and most of my time so far has been spent playing matchmaker to a stubborn muppet and her inability to actually recognise that not everyone is going to be a tavern girl that she can immediately seduce and in fact may possibly need time and actual effort to get to know someone before bedding them"

"That hurt"  
"It was supposed to"

~~~~~~~~

"See that Sabre Cat over there? Cats at a pretty fair range but not enough that you won't have to adjust for wind, just adjust your aim accordingly to how far away it is and aim for either the head or the back legs, a headshot will kill it or an arrow to the hind legs will cripple its movement"

To be fair it wasn't exactly what one would call a traditional "date", usually two people would court each other with flowers, gifts, expensive meals and travel to unique places which would end up in a romantic get away somewhere or other.

In comparison, taking someone you intend to court on a hunting trip in the autumn of Skyrim (even then it's pretty fucking cold) to live off the land for as long as you can while sniping the wildlife with a bow and arrow is crude.

Aela initially thought the same, and honestly given Seera's expensive clothing, intelligence and mannerisms that seemed far more upper class than she could ever hope to be, it looked like a poor date that would pale in significance to something someone from the cloud district could do.

And she was the dragonborn too, she'd given Aela expensive and time consuming weapons while also saving her life. The more Aela thought about it when they crossed the outer ring of guards that protected Whiterun, the more it looked like her ambitious project was going to collapse.

Then it started raining, they didn't find any kill and the companion that was killed by the giant some weeks ago never to return from meeting Kynareth first hand had crashed into a strangely identifiable heap right before them , forcing a quick return to the guards (who were quite amused regarding the recent trend of flying companions) to return the body back to Jorrvaskr.

That done and said Aela was basically ready to throw in the towel and cut her losses, slink into the hall and get drunk with Ria again.

Then Seera had turned round and asked if she wanted to continue their date, straight expression that said that Seera was enthusiastic about going.

A wide eyed huntress had to squeeze her pinky pretty hard in response.

"I guess I could have hit it with lightning or a destruction spell Aela, wouldn't have had to loose off to many arrows"  
Aela turned her head around as she finished skinning a prized thigh bone off the Sabre cat, it had stopped raining earlier and while the ground was soggy and made digging in for a long range shot difficult, Seera had managed it and the prize was one of the top predators of Skyrim.

"Fire spell would have cooked it whole, the good bits included and using a shock spell? I don't know but this is how I was taught to get a game" Aela replied, turning back to fully cut the thigh out of the body and dump it in a nearby bag.

"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't realise that-" Seera apologised quickly but Aela cut her off with a shrug.  
"Hey, don't be. It was a good kill and I'm proud of you for learning so fast to make a difficult shot okay?"  
"Okay"  
"Thank you Seera"  
"Thank you Aela" Aela gave her companion a short smile and got one in return, Seera had sometimes gone back to her awkward and apologetic ways but with a bit of encourage and no one to watch she was getting better, turns out just telling someone they did good and you having pride in them for a job well done was enough to give them smiled that beamed, a most welcome change from the girl that usually avoided more than two people at a time like the plague.

That got her thinking though as they packed away their things and continued through the upper part of Whiterun hold that was often marked with the snow from the mountainous range that split the traditional part of Skyrim in half with a few bandit camps sprinkled in that the companions often used as target practice for group work.

The intention, at least as far as Aela's dragonborn scent filled mind could comprehend without launching herself in Seera's direction every time the girl's heart rate increased or she displayed heightened emotion was to make a circle of Whiterun hold and end up back in Jorrvaskr within three or so days, enough time to have a date and whatever else her intentions had in store.

And she guessed, to figure out who Seera was. Sure she was the dragonborn, thane of whiterun and of at least two other holds, a powerful mage and a promising warrior, intelligent and also socially awkward.

Aside from that, Aela was at loss. Surely Seera had other interests besides magic and smithing?

Aela looked over at Seera as she cast a spell of bright light into a nearby remote hole, finding a locked chest filled with a single lockpick and a basic gauntlet only bandits would wear.  
"Hey Seera, what were you doing before you came to Skyrim?" 

Seera's eyebrows furrowed as she swore at the extremely underwhelming loot and turned back to Aela "What makes you think I'm not a nord?"

Aela blinked "Oh? I didn't know, sorry"

Seera chuckled lightly ,giving a soft amused smile. "I'm not, or I guess I'm not. Never really managed to figure out who I belong to but I suppose "dragonborn" is it now".

"Just a regular ol' nord here" Aela replied 

"Aela if you really wanna know, I lived in the Imperial province with my grandmother. Studied at a mage's school since I was five and now I'm here in Skyrim because I wanted to visit her" 

Shrugging and sitting down on a nearby log, Seera brushed an errant strand of brown hair out of her face and put the found items in a small bag that was too small but Aela had learnt was basically bottomless.

"Grew up in Skyrim obviously, dad took care of me until I was little and then I made it out on my own when I was old enough, joined the companions at sixteen and now I'm twenty eight" Aela joined the dragonborn , planting herself close.

"What did you learn at the mage's school?"  
"Everything I suppose, grandmother wanted me safe. Funny how that turned out, it's a lot better over there then it is at Winterhold where things are colder and more geared towards keeping the locals out" 

"Colder? So there is something that ice's a dragons core. Apparently its unwanted social calls" Aela half joked at the thought of a giant flying reptile being snowed under by a horde of villagers.

"Not really, It's like I feel the cold but my body doesn't react or be affected by it. Oh that was"  
"A really bad joke" Aela admitted.

"I'm not too great at them either to be honest"

A riverbed, small one that had a few unhealthy looking trees flanking it on either side, strangely enough for their usual habit the Mudcrabs that usually harassed anything that was at least a few hundred times their size was missing.

Strange indeed.

"Aela, can I ask you a question?" Seera called up from a metre or so back, her insistence on loading the food sack into her bottomless bag weighed her down more than Aela's nordic armour did.

"Sure".

"Is that..comfortable at all? Dragur wear that and I'm not sure if its even ,well wearable"

"To be honest Seera, it's all I had to wear since my leather armour got fried and it's not that bad, just heavy" Aela replied with a raised eyebrow.

"I mean I could have crafted you something better if you wanted" The brunette meeped and looked away as Aela turned around to face her.

Eights/nines above, Seera was far too nice for her own good.

"You don't have to, the bow and the dagger you made for are amazing and I'm so grateful for the shield Seera but asking you to craft me a full set of armour is asking too much" Aela tried her best at a diplomatic approach in the "thank you but no thank you" style.

"I guess so, I just don't want you to be unprotected again" Seera quietly admitted.

"Seera?"  
"I've seen more than enough people burn to death or barely stay alive while they roast from the inside" Seera's voice cracked.

Aela bit her lip.  
"And seeing you there on the table, I knew that you could have died from the smallest hit. That's why I made you a shield specifically to resist dragonfire and-I"

"It's fine, seriously. I appreciate it and everything Seera. Can I ask you a question?" Aela interrupted, not wanting Seera to self deprecate.

"But Aela you should have the best stuff I can give you, not everyone comes back home from dragons and"

Seeras voice started to drown out as Aela glanced forwards as a glint caught her eye, her sharp wolf senses picking up a bent wood and metal object stuck in the sand of the riverbed with smaller ones littering around. At first? Confusing to why it's even there considering that the local wildlife or bandits regularly pick the area clean.

Then there's a bunch of burnt or snapped trees upped ahead.

"Aela?" Is something wrong?" Seera calls out from just behind but it feels like she's on the opposite end of Whiterun as Aelas blood runs completely cold and she barely suppressed a body wide shiver.

That's her old bow and arrow sachet impaled into the ground, broken and destroyed from where the dragon shouted.

The trees up ahead and where she almost died.

"Aela?" Seera calls out from the otherside of Tamriel

The same spot of ground she's standing on is becoming disgustingly familiar. The scent of week old blood and burns with tattered clothing scattered around her feet where from she caught fire and almost got snuffed out of existence like a fucking bug being squashed by a boot. It's like the slighest call of a trauamatic episode and then suddenely being forced to fucking relieve it over again.

Aela the Huntress picks up a handful of dirt and sniffs herself on it.

"Aela!" Seera shouts from behind and jolts Aela out of her trance.

"Yeah?"  
"Where, what? How?" The dragonborn stares confused as Aela turns round to face her, the brunette's confused expression slowly locking on to what Aela's holding.  
"Aela, w-why does that smell like you?"  
"This, this is where I"

"Aela I" Seera's eyes open in shock as she comes to the same realisation Aela did only moments before.

This is the place where the dragon almost killed Aela, burnt her clothing and destroyed her weapons as well as obliriting an entire bandit camp and a tribe of giants like it was nothing.

Something whistles in the wolf's ear, a familiar sound of something disturbing the normally calm environment of the northern Whiterun plains, at first it's quiet and unnoticeable subtle that only Aela picks up.

She glances at Seera.

"There's something-"  
"Coming" Seera finishes the sentence and the pair snap round as the whistling sound becomes a deep rumble that pushes apart everything in Kynareth's realm and thunders towards them.

Aela knows exactly what it is.

And all the swear words in the world can't even begin to describe what she's thinking of.

Split it up into two chapters as it feels better this way, looks like Huntress will be wrapped up pretty soon and holy shit does AO3 seem to like it! Well thank you everyone for the sudden influx of follows, favourites, reviews, bookmarks and of course kudos! I'll hopefully have the next chapter out soon and depending how it goes it'll either be a final or a second last one, stay tuned everyone and thank you so much for reading:)

Kayda Starr! Again?O.o Seera is defo a cutie pie:3

griezz : Thank you for the review! Hi, it was actually me having HTTYD and Skyrim bumbling around in my head when I was writing Huntress that I got both cultures and stuff confused, thank you for pointing that out^^


	6. Laid Bare

Huntress Chapter Six Redux: Laid Bare.

Reformatted the previous chapter six into this one.

Fuck,hey had killed it,they had killed a dragon together. Aela's first ever flying giant fucking reptile and apparently another notch for Seera, a difficult one but a notch regardless.

It had ambushed them so fast that Aela didn't have time to bring her shield up, prompting Seera to protect her selflessly with a massive magic ward that deflected the dragonfire into the riverbed's walls while her armour took the brunt of her unshield half of the dragonfire.

She was selfless, even while on fire she had continued to protect Aela until the huntress had managed to grab her shield. The first attack had only lasted a few seconds but it was enough to prove to Aela how far Seera was willing to go, she didn't care about being set on fire and had simply extinguished it with a magic spell but the intent was clear.

Second attack came with a roar followed by an even bigger flamethrower that tore up the mud, soil and dirt around them in a mini inferno. Aela swore and brought her shield up, the one that Seera had smithed for her and prayed to Hircine, Seera stood behind her and cast another ward.

Together they bore the brunt of the dragonbreath, Seera's magicka wearing down the intense flames and the enchanted shield strapped to Aela's arm seemed to concentrate it at the centre and dissipated it, the heat was still there though, radiant and tickling at Aela's skin and making her prickle uncomfortably but it was nowhere near like last time.

Infact thanks to Seera it was manageable. Her sheer presence, standing by Aela's side, made fighting a dragon bearable.

Third strike is when they turned it around, Seera had begun casting thunderous lightning bolts at the oncoming dragon before it could even attack them, Aela joined in too with her bow after Seera had literally pulled out a quiver of enchanted arrows from a small pouch.

The arrows wrought devastating explosive destructions in the distance , extreme range for the huntress but doable, after that came the thunderbolts and together the two girls brought the dragon down to the ground where it smacked face first into a tree and roared in pain.

They took the opportunity to get out of the death trap that was the riverbed and found better and more cover friendly ground.

It shortly turned into a dirt war, the dragons thick hide and frontal protection giving it ample breathing space versus the magic and arrows that tore it from its perch, but it was slow and lumbering, too heavy and too big to properly maneuver itself after a fast moving redhead and a smart brunette. And somehow, said redhead kept going, like she was constantly refilled with energy.

None of that meant it didn't try its utter damnedest though, it was pissed off and it sprew flames from its mouth and attempted to bite down on the two women whenever it could, it wasn't easy to avoid either, its tail could tail a tree from its branch and its wing would create gusts of oncoming controlled air that would knock even a giant off its feet.

So Aela had to be faster, she dove between any cover she could find at every and any opportunity, loosing an armour piercing arrow in a white quiver that Seera had thrown at her from that same strange enchanted pouch. The arrows lodged themselves in the dragon's thick hides and Aela had to marvel that Seera had the foresight to not only predict that they could face a dragon attack but also extensively prepare for one, making a specialist shield and arrows for Aela to resolved to thank Seera later, preferably with a kiss.

Seera had resorted to throwing a combination of lightning and fireballs that varited between ones that left a lingering scorch mark on the dragons wings or ones that simply exploded and staggered it back, a smart move which forced the dragons fire breathe into a different direction or giving Aela the breathing space to loose another arrow into a vital area, slowly but surely and together Aela and Seera wore the dragon down.

Aela scored a hit on the wing joint and it fucking screamed at her, those massive jaws opening to reveal so many rows of serrated apex teeth.

With a quick sleight of hand and years of hunting and marksmanship, she loosed another arrow into its mouth, missing at the last second due to it seeing the danger and janking it head quickly but Aela's arrow struck true and lodged into the dragon's tongue, stopping it from being able to close its jaw.

With Seera capitalized on, Aela's eyes focused on the mage as she twirled flashes of red and blue storms between her fingers, placing her hands together and letting the energy consume her arms while the dragonborns armour flickered and somehow enhanced the magic inside.

Then she let loose, a giant thunderclap that made Skyrims erratic and destructive weather look like a toy dropped in a bathtub compared to a ship being thrown into rocks. Nothing less than a pure stream of energy erupted from Seeras fingertips and Aela was in pure awe as she watched it make contact with the dragon, the sizzling lightning pinning the reptile from all sides in a bubble and.

Well it died,screaming as it dissolved with some weird soul like energy gushing out of it.

Aela whooped and looked round to Seera, expecting her to have the same reaction.

She didn' screamed too as the dragon became a skeleton and the energy enveloped dropped to the ground.

Panic, fear and indecision were the first three things that seized Aela as Seera fell , the dragonborns body crashed to the ground in slow motion as her eyes rolled back as the energy dissipated around her. Aela's brain screamed in pain but her heart held her back, paralysing the huntress with indecision tightly in a steel forged grip.

Aela started at Seera lying on the ground before her, inert and corpse-like and unable to believe what she was seeing, it had only been moments ago when Seera had lit up with unfathomable energy, spewing lightning and fire in all directions and now she was...dead?No she couldn't be, the dragonborn couldn't be killed by a dragon's soul right?

She had to take her somewhere not in the open while she fixed this situation.

Aela rushed forwards and grabbed Seera by the shoulders, she was surprisingly light with Aela having expected that all the armor and equipment Seera was equipped with would make her like a rock, but nothing. Like it wasnt even physically there.

She dragged Seera as graciously as she could to a familiar small open cave that was already settled in with items that she had previously abandoned there the first time.

She placed Seera in the bedding as softly as she could, tucking her up to the collarbone and removing her boots so she wouldn't wake up to a mud bath.

Making sure that the dragonborn was secure, Aela sat down cross legged next to her, taking care to only make contact with the girls shoulders or places where she had been allowed to touch before, and while she greatly no badly wanted to brush her fingers through Seera's hair she was a pretty big fan of consent and a hopefully sleeping Seera wasn't capable of that...yet.

So,she waited.A small part of her remembered the stories about the dragonborn that were said to ,well according to the old nord legends have the body of a mortal but the soul of a dragon and able to consume the souls of them.

So presumably, Seera had tired herself out with that giant magic attack at the end and overwhelmed herself with the dragon soul thing?. It made some sense and with the conclusion that Seera would probably wake up and Aela was happy with that.

All she had to do was to wait and she kinda wanted to have a good conversation with the girl, to see if her courtship worked and if Seera really reciprocated her feelings.

At least she smelt nice and Aela did have the memories of handling Seera's slim, but nice figure.

~~~~~~~~~

A rustleollowed by a groan Aela's ears perked up and she opened her eyes, having simply waited in a half sleep and letting her wolf senses do the rest.

Seera blinked and shifted backwards for a few seconds as she gradually woke up. Aela stifled a laugh as Seera's eyes suddenly opened and shut rapidly a few times as she processed the cave around them, evidently expecting herself to still be on that field facing the dragon.

"Hey you" Aela gently rubbed Seera's shoulder, causing her to yawn and look over and at up at the huntress with those cute doe eyes.

"Aela?" 

"It's me, I'm kinda glad that you're finally awake"

Seera nodded slowly and sat up, stretching her shoulders and humming. She seemed happier?."I guess you dragged me over here after we got that dragon?"Aela nodded."Thanks Aela, I got too caught up in things and passed out" 

"No worries, it's nice to be doing the saving for once" Aela joked with a toothy grin, making Seera snort and smile back.

"Guess we're even?" 

"Yeah"

Silence, just light breathing between the both of them. Racing thoughts of finishing the courtship slowly filtered into Aela and she swallowed.

Seera rolled onto her side and faced Aela. "You wanted to talk about something?"

Aela huffed in surprise, while that was on the agenda she sure had not said anything, was Seera able to mind read? "Yes I did? How did you know?"

"It's no surprise that you're a werewolf, you smell like one and those heightened emotions are pretty easy to read"

"Fair"

"So, I guess I'm here, and you're here, what did you want?" Seera said suddenly blanky, and suddenly very forward like, taking Aela back a few steps in conversation.

Aela stiffened and allowed herself a small blush, reminding herself of everything that had happened between them and Seera was probably looking for answers like she was.

She looked her directly in the eyes.

Aela swallowed and breathed in. "I like you"

Seera nodded and gulped. "I like you too"

"But" 

"But what Seera?" 

Seera sighed and turned around, facing away from Aela, she fidgeted a bit as if she wasn't sure what to say for a few moments before she spoke again. "Is it because I'm the dragonborn?"

"What?" Was all Aela could say in surprise response.

"I'm sorry..I've just had people say that before to me because they knew who I am and wanted a piece of Tamriel's rarest and dearest warrior" 

"It's not because of that I-" 

"And that's all they want! Like I dont matter as a person with emtional or a background, its because of my blood that people want to have sex with me and try to constantly marry me to thier sons or daughters because being dragonborn is the only thing that matters!" Seera shook with and clenched her fists.

"I mean, it's why I've changed my face at least three times and why I try to avoid crowds because the moment someone, no anybody recgonises who I am its always the same fucking thing over and over again!I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that, now I probably look really different to you now"

Aela shifted towards Seera and brushed her shoulder again, mouth dry for now at the sudden but understandable outburst. Everything made sense, the awkwardness, the lack of social interaction and all other things that happened.

Truth be told she was kind of worried that Seera thought the same of her.

"Seera?" 

"What?"

"It's alright, I understand".

"You don't, unless you're a weredragon"

Calmly, Aela settled herself and gently tugged on Seera's side, tracing her fingers down to a curled fist and gently prying it open , Seera grunted in response but eventually shifted over and the two made eye contact, the bright green eyes and pretty brown hair of one versus Aela's light grey eyes and less kempt red hair.

"I know what it means to have your reputation, whatever it is that precedes you."She wrapped her fingers around Seera's and Seera squeezed back."In Whiterun, people know me either as a hardass'd companion or a slut who spends her time whoring in the inn's, sometimes both and people often dictate how they talk to me based on my clothing"Seera bit her lip, saying nothing."And that's how basically everyone sees me, except for a few of the companions and Dancia, im basically either Aela the Huntress or Aela the slut, I have nothing of value to my name except for a old salvaged suit of nord armour and two hundread septims saved up. That shield and weapons you gifted me is worth more than everything I've ever earnt in my life."Somehow she felt better saying that, that a weight had been lifted off her shoulders but she wasn't done yet.

"Aela I-"

"Dont". She put a finger to Seera's lip.

"I didn't know you were the dragonborn until you came into the companions halls and before then I still planned on getting to know you more, it doesnt matter whats in your blood or how well you smell, I like being around with you and while I cant afford fancy dinners or take you to Solitude, I want to let you know that I've appreciated everything you've done for me and that I like you." Aela flashed a real smile and leant in close, real close that she could actually taste Seera's skin and scent if she wanted squeezed Aela's hand again.

"You're nothing like anyone else, and I feel comfortable around you."

"I can let myself down around you." 

"I like being with you." 

Aela delicately touched Seera's hair and then lightly poked her in the cheek with a finger as she shifted forwards to almost touch noses."This has been a real eventful day huh?" Seera joked awkwardly as a red tinge slowly manifested around her cheekbones.

"Tell me about it."

Aela closed her eyes and lightly pecked Seera on the a hitched breath and a slight squeak, Seera made the first real move and angled herself into Aela's lips, capturing the huntress in a real purred, leaning in to wrap her arms around Seera's body, tugging her closer to where they couldn't tell whose limbs and started and whose ended.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In Between long pent up kisses and the need to utterly wrap herself around Seera, Aela had managed to slide under the dragonborn and also stealthily (sort of) take her own clothes off in the process, Seera lay on Aela, the blankets covering both of them as Seera literally magicked her clothes off.

She held her, arms wrapped around the girl's warm abdomen and Aela nestled her face softly into Seeras upper back.

"This is nice." 

"Agreed."

Seera shifted, rubbing her cheekbone against Aela's forehead, Aela squeezed, making Seera produce a cute sound and a blush to her cheeks.

It was...hard to believe to say the least that it had gone so well, better than a good dream or a bard's tale, Seera was pretty in the fair kind of sense, she was rich, intelligent and powerful. Aela was neither powerful or had money and she liked to consider herself smart but not on the genius intellect that Seera was able to display regularly.

Aela sighed sShehe wasn't as pretty either, at best she could describe herself as worn goods, she was attractive given her track level but no where near the level of some others.

"What's up? You've gone quiet?" Seere asked.

"Just curious." 

"What about?"

"Seera, why me?"

"What do you mean?"

Aela nuzzled into Seera's shoulder, holding her tight as she slowly released the anxiety that had been plaguing her ever since she started courting Seera; the doubt that she wouldn't be good enough.

"I guess I just feel lucky" 

"Lucky?" 

"Two different backgrounds, I wasn't sure if we were going to fit each other, like I said earlier. I don't have anything of value and there's plenty of people that are more attractive and richer than I am."No audible response from Seera for a few seconds, then.

"That doesn't mean a damn thing to me."She squeezed Aela's hands.

"You've done so much for me Aela"

"I, it doesn't matter what material possessions you have, I used to not talk to people for days and in less than a month with you, I've talked to so many people, Ria, Farkas and Vilkas. I was brave enough to come out of my shell and it's all because of you."Seera smiled back and nodded.

She wasn't sure how long they spent there together.

But she was sure when Seera started moving erratically, her legs shifting and upbeated breathing with pupil dilation when Aela touched her in certain stomach produced a her legs around Seeras made Seera try not to rub her legs together but it was obviousnd then the kisses, eager ones. Neck was a good spot to get Seera interestedsexually interestedand Aela followed.

She sank her teeth slowly into Seeras lovely soft collarbone, making her writhe and moan as Aela trailed her hands up Seera's upper body, pinching and touching for added effect until they reached her breasts and she fondled them too for good measure. 

"Aela!" Seera moaned, rubbing her thighs together until the blanket.

Chuckling in response, Aela moved her teeth to Seera's delicate neck, deftly sinking them in as she delighted in the pleasured response she was getting, evidently her bed partner was into biting just made things hotter.

She twirled her fingers deftly around those hard pink nipples, pulling and circling round them, she opened her legs for Seera to sit in between her and then closed them so Seera couldn't relieve the wet pressure between her thighs that had started dripping onto Aela's.

She resisted the urge to simply go for Seera then, foreplay had to be done right, there was always time for seconds as she played with Seera's body for what felt like hours, teasing her breasts with her fingers, closing and opened her legs to keep the rhythm going and timing her nibbles and bites with Seera's moans.

"Aeelaaaaa!" A squeak.

And Aela obliged, gliding one hand patiently down the abdomen, then stomach. Making sure her other hand was in perfect synchronization with breast fondling as she teased Seera's dripping lips open, teasing by rubbing up and down and then dipping her forefinger in to stroke around at the soft tissue inside.

Seera must have been pent up for a while as she suddenly started to heave up and down with the second digit going in, Aela's own arousal was growling something impatient but she waited all the same.

She squeezed hard on Seera's breast and kissed her neck lovingly as she fingered the dragonborn as best as she could, three fingers this time in and out quickly, forcing a sudden and messy orgasm that spilled over Aela's legs with a pleasing aroma to her nose.

Seera screamed a few seconds later, the delayed orgasm piercing Aela's ears as Seera convulsed violently and gripped the bedding, tearing at it while knocking her head back repeatedly

and then she fell , but amusing.

Aela shrugged and gently wiggled under and out, tucking Seera in as she slept soundly and well. She'd just masturbate to the good time she'd given out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Something prodded her face, fleshy and finger groaned, feeling sore in the hands and wrists department and turned onto her side to get away from the errant prodding.

"Aela" A voice came from above. 

"Sits too early, should back to sleepy" Aela replied.

"Aela, get up" Another voice, a man's, further away.

She opened her eyes slowly and groggily, some parts of her ached and hurt from sleeping in an awkward position, having semi cuddled Seera while also splayed out on the ground. She felt something heavy over her and it felt like a blanket. The morning light painfully pierced her vision and she huffed.

Ria crouched over her, retracting her hand from another prodding and with that bloody amused expression that she seemed to always carry. "Good to see you too Aela" She smirked at the huntress's red faced morning haired after sex response groan.

Aela bought the blanket up to her chin and stretched out. "Where's Seera?" She asked, noting the absence of a certain brunette with an empty roll up bed.

"She's gone with Farkas for her induction mission."

"How did you find me?" 

"The dragon skeleton was pretty conspicuous." 

"Fair."

Ria sat down next to Aela, lightly brushing through her hair to get some of the knots out. "Honestly, I'm actually surprised" She chuckled.

"Surprised about what?" Aela looked up with one eye, cracking her knuckles.

"The complete lack of modesty"

"Eh."

"We should go." Vilkas said impatiently.

"For what exactly?"

"For the the induction ceremony when they come back"

"We're not going after them?" Aela asked. 

"No, conflict of interest and given that, you know your current state, I don't want to drag you back to Kodlak." Aela glanced over at her clothes and armour, scattered around the small open cave after last night's hectic looked away, Ria just shot her a glance and got up.

BUT I'M NOT DONE YET. One last chapter to go wheeeeeee!


	7. Feelings

Aela groaned, nursing a delayed headache from the previous days . It wasn't usual that she would even feel remotely tired even without the wolf blood that was a permanent fixture in her body. Things just felt weird, too weird. Body hurt, mind confused and her feelings a raging torrent of half fixated sexuality and the numbing but present pain that she had fucked something up with Seera last night. Initially it was good, giving the other person a great time and everything but the more she thought it, nagging in her head the only answer was that Aela The Huntress had screwed something up somewhere.

Why why why? They were supposed to have sex, consumate the courtship and be more than friends or something like that, everything previously. Man, women and even the beast races had always gone that way in a hormone driven night of pleasure and mess. For the life of her she couldnt figure out how or why or what she had done to fuck things up, was so she bad at fingering that Seera had fallen asleep or did she just rush it?

It didn't help that Vilkas had immediately slunk off to either beat the new recruits to death with a stick and the other inner circle members, being Skorji and Kodlak had done their best to avoid her, leaving her to worry about Seera either dying in a ruin or outright just going back into her shell because Aela had stepped into the proverbial shock rune and fucked things up.

In her anger she grabbed a nearby plate and threw it across the room, probably shattering some ancient companion artifact that even Vignar would struggle to remember.

Dammit! She couldn't figure it out and it was driving her slowly insane.

Fuck Ria saw the plate shattering into gods knows how many pieces.  
~~~~~~~

"So let me get this straight, she just fell asleep?" Ria asked patiently with an amused expression with an eyebrow that wouldn't stop wiggling.

Aela sighed, with another painful groan and sank back into her inner circle chair, hoping it would swallow her and spit out a Aela-atronach that could deal with everything by simply shocking the problems to death. "Yes, we got to "that" stage and it was going so well until Seera passed out on me"

"So?" Ria shrugged nonchalantly "Do you know why?"

"Well I told you, I fingered her and she just passed out on me, it felt great at first but now I think about it and it's been grating on me all morning that I did something wrong"

"Or something," Aela added.

"Did she , you know. Consent to it?"

"Yes"

"Did she enjoy it?"

"Yes?, where are you going with this Ria?"

Ria to her credit didn't laugh, instead she sat back mirroring Aela and exhaled loudly before giving a sympathetic but amused smile.

"What"

Ria blinked and huffed incredulously "Your an a idiot Aela, and playing matchmaker is the funniest thing I've done in Skyrim"

"Huh"

Ria jabbed an Imperial finger in Aela's direction.  
"Look, you told me everything that happened last night, heart to heart and then killing a your and before you even did that the pair of you hiked all the way across Whiterun hold, have you seriously considered that your just feeling anxiety and she was actually just tired?"

Her eyebrows furrowed for a second and then her brain , anxiety? Was Aela even capable of feeling that?

She thought about it

Processed.

The slowly leaking truth of Rias words that turned the gears in Aela's head gave fruit.

"Oh"

She was just being overly anxious about it. Silly, stupid really.

"Oh indeed" Ria chuckled. "Still you should probably talk to the girl when she comes back tonight with Farkas after the proving"

"What?"

"Seriously, go get your girl"

Aela's heart almost exploded for a second or two.  
~~~~~

Three wolves clad in armor constructed from a composite of moonborn fur and skyforge steel stood in a circle, the forebear of the second oldest stood proud and tall with his greatsword notched firmly in its holding.

Kodlak gave Aela a courtesy nod and she returned it.

Skjori just grunted and Vilkas's reaction was an awkward blink.

Farkas and Seera had yet to come but they had gathered outside as the inner circle always did when a guard reported that the two were coming home, a little worse for wear but fine and healthy apparently.

Aela looked the odd one out as she always did, her fiery red hair was enough to make any passerby glance at the odd arrangement of the other members with their bulky stature and dark hair while she stood lithe in appearance and in a more colorful leather tunic that was studded with bright enchantments courtesy of Seera the dragonborn.

The awkward air that stood still between them, the fact that Aela was the prime forebear of the companions and yet she decided to distance herself from the rest by a tad.

None of them said anything, but they could feel each other's heartbeats and other subtle bodily actions and Aela's was always the most active, but a different active this time. One ridden with an over pumped heartbeat and full of anxiety compared to the rest anyway, Vilkas was always so bloody unemotional and she was sure Kodlak and Skjori still harboured animosity towards her and her actions of the past month.

Aela's unfound anxiety wasn't towards them though. Seera was coming with Farkas, what would she say? What would Aela do when they met after almost a day after last night? Would it be awkward, would she even be allowed some time alone with the girl she liked since the induction ceremony for a new companion was always in the mead hall in a giant party.

Shit, could she even say hi? Ria's conversation helped but that was that tiny and excruciatingly annoying knot that formed in the pit of her stomach every time she thought about even _seeing Seera and she and Farkas was somewhere in Whiterun right now._

She had to get a hold of herself, to stiffen her back and stand as straight as a rock like the other four companions of the inner circle with her, be the steadfast Vilkas, the unmoving Skjor. Be like Farkas with an easy smile and go happy attitude or like Kodlak who stood as a moveable mountain even in the face of a mighty Skyrim storm.

She succeeded, holding herself in place with her eyes to the ground so nobody would see the turbulence of emotions going through right now that was too fucking difficult to control without throwing another plate or something.

"Members of the circle" Kodlak began speaking or something, it was difficult to hear. She reached up to her long auburn hair and twisted a strand or two around her finger. Kodlak kept speaking and she didn't know why, her world had been closed off while she internally kept herself together and debated on the who what where and why of her current and more pressing predicament.

"Aela" Someone whispered and she gave a thumbs up in reply. Farkas was muttering about something and she bit her lip.

"Aela!?"

"What?" She hissed and looked up to see the source of the noise that interrupted her, Vilkas to her right was making direct eye contact and he mouthed something about looking forward, so she did.

And there was Seera, blushing and right in the middle of the circle that Aela and the others had enveloped. She had literally just anxiet'd her way through half of the induction ceremony and thankfully no one bar two had noticed.

"I'd raise a mug in her name and lead the hall in the reveal of her stories' ' Farkas finished and gave a broad smile. Seera smiled back and just watching that exchange put Aela at ease, even a little.

"Members of the circle, we will now impart our judgement on this young woman, if you see reason for her to become a member of the companions or not, speak your mind" Kodlak's soft but commanding voice at night snapped her to attention.

"I do"  
"I do"  
"I do"  
"I do"

She breathed in, exhaled and nodded. "I do"

"Very well, this circle's judgement is complete. Seera. Welcome to the Companions, this night is yours in Jorrvaskr"

With that Kodlak and the others left, Farkas exchanged a glance with Seera and he went inside too.

Awkward, again.

Seera looked radiant though, even with a slight sway to one side, a muddy ear and hair that looked unkempt, clothes that were half beaten and fingers that constantly twitched and flexed from over-use of magicka. Aela felt better just looking at her.

"Hey" Seera spoke up, nervously shifting her weight to the other side and tucking an errant stand of hair behind her ear.

Aela's fingers gripped their nearby knuckles as she struggled to put a word out other than a greeting. "Hey"

"Hi Aela"

"Hi Seera"

Dammit, she'd been thinking of something to say all day long and now nothing, just silence between them.

She had to do something, anything. Seera had been slowly coming out of her shell for weeks and the worst thing Aela could do was to sit back and do _nothing _, like she was immobile and unable to control her limbs.

Fuck, everything that she was worried about hours ago was coming back and her feet were rooted to the spot.

Aela didn't know what to do except just feel bad about yesterday, sighing deeply and forcing herself to look Seera in the eyes she apologised. "Hey, like I'm sorry about what happened yesterday, I'm sorry for making you fall asleep or like fucking up or something and I just feel bad and everything"

She dared to make eye contact again with Seera who didn't say anything , nothing. She was silent too and biting her lip.

"I'm sorry too"

"What?"

"I was tired and I should have told you"

Aela breathed a sigh of relief, her anxiety troubles on _that front _were overblown at the least. "So I didnt wear you out or anything?"

"No?"

"And your not angry with me or anything?"

"No?, gods why would I be angry with you Aela?" Seera's eyebrows did that cute furrow and she rolled her eyes. "No I'm, its just that I was a little confused too and my experiences with people, to say it hasn't been much" She confessed.

"No I ge-get it, I'm not the best person with feelings, more of the physical kind you know?"

"Yeah! I noticed, and I'm not too great with either".

Aela took a step forward. And then another until she was level and close to feel Seera's hitched breathing on her exposed. She fought down the anxiety and forced her right hand and its fingers to come within an inch of Seera's own.

"Do you mind if I?"

"You what?"

"I want to-hug you"

"I would like that"

Aela nodded and brushed her fingers up and along the dragonborns fingers, making tiny little electric joints that gave her brain a jolt, she went further up and pressed her palm into Seera's back, her other hand coming near but not on the girls waist. She looked Seera in the eyes and gave a long, slow and thoughtful blink.

She received the same back, a consenting meaning that was reciprocated. She bit her lip and remembered the feel of the girl she liked when they were in the cave but a day ago. She was still anxious though, that numbing pit constantly reminding her and making everything fuzzy and weird.

"Are you sure it's okay?" She asked again, unsure who the question was for

"Aela, are you feeling alright?"

"I-I guess Im anxious" Aela admitted, blushing a bit.

Seera's face was hidden but somehow Aela could see the expression on it. "I feel the same way too"

Hearing that was enough to kick the proverbial ball into rolling, was she really going to just stand here? She _liked this girl _and _this girl liked her back._

So ,fuck it. They both _wanted and needed this._

Aela pulled the drago-no Seera into a tight hug.

Soft hair brushed past Aela's shoulder and a damp face nuzzled into her ear, She swore she heard a muffled thank you and the two relaxed in each other's presence for the first time in a day.

~~~~  
Well I did it, only took me a year to from start to finish.

This is the first real story that Ive finished and I'm happy with it, Aela had a fun lesson in consent and that not everything in life needs to be sexual. Thank you so much for reading and I do have another Skyrim story in the works that will be roughly the same length so once again and from the bottom of my heart, thank you to Kayda Starr for your edits in the chapter and to you, the reader. For reading :)


End file.
